India's Smallest Hill Railway Completes 100 Years

By Arvind Mahapatra FOR over a century now, hill railways, or "toy trains" as they are popularly known, have been the delight of many tourists to India.

Completing one hundred years in April 1907, is the Matheran hill railway system built in 1907 is the shortest in India, connecting the little hill station to Mumbai, covering just 21 km from the plains railway station of Neral to Matheran..

The Matheran Railway has made it to the Unesco's tentative heritage list.

In a letter dated December 15, 2005 , director of Unesco World Heritage Centre, Francesco Bandarin, states: The Matheran Light Railway has been included in the tentative list for conservation." Matheran , is the smallest hill station of India with an area of about 7.25 sq.

kms and local population of approx.

But the annual number of tourists is approx 2,50,000.

Around 63% of Matheran is reserve Forest and the bungalow plots are largely woody The hill station rises sheer from the plains up to its highest point of 2600 ft, a mere 22 miles from Bombay as the crow flies, within easy reach of those who wish to delve into its beauty and charm and savour its clean and fresh air, even for just a weekend It was discovered in 1850 by Hugh Poyntz Malet, then collector of Thana, who made the ascent from the village of Chowk to the top of the hill and was immediately impressed with its natural beauty.

Having apparently fallen in love with his discovery, he soon returned to the hill and made several subsequent visits, when he took up his friends and relatives who built simple dab and wattle huts.

In 1855 the Governor of Bombay, Lord Elphinstone, visited the hill and for him it was love at first sight.

With its salubrious climate and its proximity to Bombay he foresaw Matheran's popularity.

The British had wisely banned the automobile from ever coming upon the hill (a ban which is still in existence, making Matheran Asia's only car-free hill station) and no internal combustion engine pollutes the pristine atmosphere.

The fresh air is invigorating and after just a couple of days one's steps become springier and there is a decided difference in the level of fitness.

Started in 1907, the Matheran hill Railway was one of the few wholly Indian-owned train tracks during the British Raj.

Behind it is a story of grit and determination and an element of risk taking.

Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy was a rich Bohra businessman.

It was his son Abdul Hussein who first thought of linking Neral at the foothills to Matheran by a railway line.

Till then the main means of transport for going from Bombay to the hill station were either horse driven vehicles or going on pony back.

Abdul Hussian Peerbhoy sought government permission to lay the rail track, which was granted with a caveat that he must not expect any financial aid from the government.

Peerbhoys readily shelled out the entire cost out of their own pocket.

It cost them about Rs 16 lakh, an incredibly large amount for 1907 and would be equivalent to 80 crores of rupees today.

Abdul Hussein went ahead and laid out a 21 km track, in just 18 months.

It was built by local labour.

Right from the beginning, the train was popular with the public.

This railway takes over 200 curves to travel 6.5km and a good way upwards.

It apparently has the sharpest curves of any railway in the world and is supposed to be a breathtakingly beautiful journey.

The toy train runs between sunrise and sunset, two trips either way every day, carrying about one hundred passengers each trip.A general unreserved coach is also there for economy travel at just Rs.

Recently to celebrate the centenary the Indian railway has made a luxury coach, which is available to tourists a higher cost and it is proposed to introduce twelve seater train-bus.

The train, with a gauge of only two feet can attain a maximum speed of 16 kmph, but seldom exceeds ten..

A porter in blue stands on the footboard connecting the two coaches to pull the manual brake when told to do so by the driver through a whistle.

The train does not have airbrakes, though there are plans to introduce it in the near future.

Then in July 26th 2005 tragedy struck, a train was returning to Neral when a boulder fell on the tracks.

The guard of the toy train saw it falling.

"Luckily, it didn't fall on the train," he said.

It took 18 months and three crores of rupees to repair the tracks and re introduce the train in april 2007, just in time for the 100th anniversary celeberations.

Now the refurnished/repaired the train will chug along carrying a huge slice of history , but sadly, sans the original glory - the four steam locomotives used on the line a century ago.

The reason is that they are now scattered across the globe.

Tips for travelers to Matheran: Carry torches or better still a rechargeable lantern, sturdy bamboos or walking sticks - even the fittest will appreciate these, proper walking shoes, your own booze - no wine shops here, and preferably your oldest clothes which you can discard on departure - being coated in red mud! The monkeys in Materan are unusually aggressive.

One guesses that years of being fed by tourists made them not only unafraid of humans, but even bold enough to grab food and drinks right off hands and backpacks